Ethnographic Neighborhood StudyWe designed this website as an ethnographic interpretation of the Southwark School and its surrounding community. Southwark is situated in a racially and ethnically diverse neighborhood in South Philadelphia with a population that includes a variety of migrant, immigrant, and refugee groups as well as other long-time South Philly residents. Our intention is to comprise a representation that is authentic as well as useful. We hope in navigating through our website the viewer gains a deeper understanding of the assets as well as the challenges within the Southwark community.
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Methodology |
Our primary sources of data include interviews with community members and stakeholders. Due to the sensitive nature of these conversations, we have chosen to keep the identity of our interviewees confidential. We spoke with two teachers, the principal, several employees of community organizations, and two community members. Generally, we paraphrase and synthesize the content of these conversations collectively, and at other times, we quote interviewees directly. We have cited all information from online sources on our Resources page. Furthermore, we decided against representing the community's demographic information in the form of quantitative charts and graphs. We felt this depiction of data did not lend itself to presenting a nuanced picture of individual lived experiences within this community.
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Limitations |
Though our aim with this project was to maintain objectivity, we are still outsiders looking into a community, and cannot claim to understand the full experience of those living in and going to school in the Southwark neighborhood. We also recognize the problems inherent in representing an entire community through limited data. This website comprises our best interpretation and synthesis of the information we gathered.
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